Hitman admits killing 8 for Philly drug lord

PHILADELPHIA — A hitman told jurors Monday that he killed at least eight people for Philadelphia drug kingpin Kaboni Savage, including six relatives of a suspected informant, saying simply that that was his role in the organization.

Lamont Lewis is testifying at Savage’s federal racketeering trial. Savage and two other men face the death penalty if convicted of killing 11 people during Savage’s reign atop the North Philadelphia drug world. Savage is already serving 30 years for a federal drug kingpin conviction.

Lewis said that he and his cousin, defendant Robert Merritt, firebombed a row house in 2004 on orders from Savage and his sister, Kidada Savage, who is also on trial. The family of the suspected informant, Eugene “Twin” Coleman, lived there, and two women and four children died in the fire, including Coleman’s mother and infant son.

The arson is among the worst retaliation killings in city history. Both Savage and Coleman were in prison when the hit was allegedly ordered through messenger Kidada Savage.

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The firebombing went unsolved for years, until federal authorities charged Savage in 2011 with running a deadly racketeering enterprise.

In his first day on the witness stand, Lewis explained why he agreed to kill people for the Savage organization.

“That’s what I did for the team. That’s my role,” the burly, tattooed prisoner said.

Lewis expects to serve at least 40 years in prison but be spared the death penalty in exchange for his testimony. His family has been put in the witness protection program, he said.

He also acknowledged killing several people unrelated to Savage’s group, including a woman he shot in the face because she had stabbed and tried to extort her drug dealer boyfriend. The boyfriend paid him the equivalent of $23,000, including $8,000 in cash and the services of a lawyer whom the dealer had on a $15,000 retainer, Lewis said.

Coincidentally, he was arrested the next day in the Savage case. He told the FBI about the woman’s death when he decided to cooperate, and said Monday agents had been unaware of his involvement.

But another time, he had agreed to kill someone for a cousin who “had a problem” with a man in New Jersey. The deal was a setup. The cousin was working for the FBI and the New Jersey man didn’t exist.

Lewis, speaking in a flat, dry voice, described his rise through a rival drug organization to his move to the Savage organization to his role as the hitman. He grew up with Savage and used to skip school and play video games at his house, said Lewis, who is now in his mid-30s.

He said he started selling $2 vials of cocaine for a dealer named “Pumpkin” when he was 15 or 16, lured by the chance to make money for a trip to an amusement park.

“My first half-hour out there, I must have made $100 or $200,” he said.

Within months, he rose to a position distributing the dealer’s drugs, and then proceeded to fill the vials in Savage’s basement, he said. A few years later, he came to run his own drug corner.

Ronald “Pumpkin” Walston was killed in the summer of 2001. Lewis has a tattoo honoring him on his neck.